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Zack Taylor
Zack Taylor '''was the first Black Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers . He remained it until Adam Park took over in seasons 2 and 3. Throughout the series, he was portrayed by Walter E. Jones . Character Background Zack and his close friends Kimberly Ann Hart , Jason Lee Scott , Billy Cranston and Trini Kwan were picked as the five original Power Rangers by the wise sage Zordon to defend Earth from the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa . Zack was chosen as the '''Black Power Ranger, gaining the Mastodon Power Coin and the Mastodon Dinozord.[1] Quick witted and clever, Zack relies on a combination of skill, strength, and agility to win his battles. The original African American Ranger is an energetic, charismatic and fun-loving young man. He enjoys athletics (such as basketball, American football, and scuba diving), dancing (especially to a fresh beat bumping out his friend's boombox), parties, and girls. Whenever he didn't have an arm around Trini or Kimberly, Zack could be found pursuing his attractive, but hard-to-get classmate, Angela. Zack always loved a good joke. Though he loved all the people close to him, Zack's best friend was clearly Jason. Zack is extremely confident and positive. Only four occasions saw Zack ready to give it up: when the Green Ranger took out Zordon, Alpha 5 and the Command Center while removing the Rangers from the Megazord; when his team was placed under a spell to take away their confidence; and when their Dinozords were commandeered by Lord Zedd 's first monster, Pirantishead. But the first occasion happen very early in the series when his friends pretended to have forgotten his birthday. Zack went off into a secluded area, and into a trap by Rita. For some time, he had to fight the powerful Knasty Knight alone. Oddly enough, despite his plentiful confidence, Zack is an extreme ophidiophobe, arachnophobe, and entomophobe meaning he is terrified of snakes, spiders, and insects although, on one occasion when performing magic for a group of children seeking shelter from a monster attack, he handled two fake snakes and used them to scare off Bulk and Skull. Because of this, it can be assumed that Zack's fear of snakes deteriorated over time, especially after an encounter on Rita's Island of Illusion where his strength of will was tested against his fear of snakes. Zack enjoyed Martial arts just as much as he did dancing and, as a result, created his own fighting style, called Hip Hop kido. The customized art consisted of dance-like maneuvers flourished with fast and powerful strikes, much like Capoeira. This effective combination of power and prowess made Zack an incredibly formidable combatant. However, he would sometimes tone down his style and mimic the attacks of Billy to simultaneously strike opponents. He was also very resourceful. On several occasions, it was his cunning that lead to the victory of his team. Such occasions included his discovery of the means to overcome the Knasty Knight who was sent to isolate and destroy him on his birthday- the monster possessed the ability to redistribute the Ranger's force in order to fry the weapons they used against him. When the storm-bringing chimera monster Goatan froze the Megazord, Zack analyzed what little resources the Megazord had left and used it to regain dominance in the battle. After Tommy Oliver joined the team, he and Zack quickly became close friends as a result of their similar interests. When Tommy was nervous about trying to engage a romantic relationship with Kimberly, it was Zack who Tommy sought for advise. Before Tommy appeared (or if Tommy is not at the Youth Center) Zack is usually Jason's sparring partner when practicing Karate. Tommy and Zack would also act as sparring partners for each other, as well. Though Jason was the Ranger Tommy selected to take on his Green Ranger powers after Rita eliminated Tommy's link to the Morphing Grid, Zack is the only other individual to don the Dragon Shield when Tommy gave it to him so that it's enhanced regenerative powers could heal Zack from the Oysterizer monster's acidic attack. In the Season 2 episode " Green No More , Part 1", Zack's cousin Curtis was introduced, who would have a small recurring role throughout the middle of the season. Curtis was very similar to Zack due to their similar interests in dance and music, as well as their smooth-talking speech pattern. He also formed a friendship with Trini's crush Richie. The two once even managed to fight off a group of Putties while they were skating. Three of their friends, Adam Park , Rocky DeSantos and Aisha Campbell would replace them as Rangers. Zack's last Ranger mission was to find The Sword of Light , which would transfer the Rangers' powers. Adam became Zack's successor as the new Black Ranger. His current whereabouts are unknown. Trivia * Walter E. Jones , the actor portraying Zack, has a finger missing on his hand, but somehow the camera almost managed to avoid portraying this. However near the end of Island Of Illusions pt. 1, you can see the missing finger if you look carefully when the rangers discover Quagmire and in Foul Play you can see the missing finger as Zack is grasping a basketball. His missing finger can also be seen in his morphing sequence, where the other Rangers show 5 fingers on the top of their Morpher. If you also look closely in 'The Wanna-Be Ranger', Primator tricks Trini and Kimberly that the others are having trouble in the park as Zack. "Zack" actually stays behind and drinks Trini's banana shake, and his missing finger is seen. *Zack is one of two other Rangers to use Tommy's Dragon Shield, with Jason being the other. *Zack is a prankster. He liked to wear Halloween masks to scare Trini and Kimberly. *He also has a great fear of bugs and snakes. *Zack was particularly close to Jason and Tommy. All three liked to work out together and practice their martial arts. They also were the highest ranking as Jason was leader and Zack was second-in-command before Tommy led as the White Ranger and Jason was second-in-command and Zack became third-in-command. *Walter Jones was the first actor who was a Ranger to do voice work in a subsequent Ranger season. In an important episode of Power Rangers: Wild Force entitled Forever Red, Jones provided the voice for one of the antagonists, a general in the Machine Empire named Gerrok. *He was also a dancer, followed by Ashley Hammond. *He's the only original Mighty Morphin' Ranger who is not featured in Power Rangers: Super Legends. *Zack's full name was revealed to be Zachary Taylor, which is also the name of the 12th president of the United States *Zack is one of three original Rangers to leave the series and make no further appearances in character. Trini and Billy were the other two, however Thuy Trang (The actress that portrayed Trini) was killed in a vehicle accident, and David Yost (the actor that portrayed Billy) left the show due to disagreements with the cast and crew and is unlikely to return. *Zack's fun-loving and wisecracking personality constrasts with his Sentai counterpart Goushi who was the serious voice of reason. In Other Media interactive CD-ROM and Fan Video *Zack's birthday was given as May 3, making him a Taurus. *Zack's birthplace was given as Washington, D.C. *Zack's favorite food was meatloaf; his favorite subject was American history. *Zack was supposedly the fastest sprinter on Angel Grove High's track team. *Intuition was the guide of Zack's life, as he frequently acted on gut feelings. *Asked about favorite foods, Jason admitted he liked big bowls of ice cream, though not as big as Zack would eat. *Asked about what music he liked, Jason said he liked hip hop, which he got from hanging around Zack too much; Zack and Jason would often dance around and have a good time in one of their garages, until someone would walk by, embarrassing them. *Being interviewed himself, Zack sat in the Juice Bar; he had his hair in braids and wore a communicator. *Zack described himself as the fun, bouncy member of the group, the crazy, fun-loving, spontaneous jokester; he added that he was a guy everyone got along with, and he'd always have an ear for people. *As an instance of being caught off-guard, Zack described seeing an old lady acting weird and then turning into a Putty; he remarked that he should've known Rita had been up to something. *Zack's favorite ice cream was cookies and cream. *On the topic of music, Zack said he liked hip hop, since he loved anything he could dance to, and although he claimed to be able to dance to almost anything, hip hop had a funky groove he liked; he also enjoyed a variety of other music from rap to old-style rock 'n roll such as Elton John and Billy Joel. *With regard to his plans for the future, Zack thought he'd go to college, where he'd have more time to discover what he wanted to do; some ideas he'd considered were going into advertising, in which he could be creative and come up with jingles, or being a travel agent so he could see the world. *Asked how he'd come up with hip hop kido, Zack said he'd combined dancing with martial arts, figuring it was the best way to have fun and defend oneself at the same time. *Talking about her friends, Kim said she loved Zack, calling him fun and a great party guy who could always entertain people. Photo Gallery 200px-Zack_morph.jpg|Zack's morph shot- "Masadon" 220px-MMPR_Black_Ranger.jpg|Zack as the Black Ranger. 220px-MMPR_Zack.jpg|snapshot of Zack in "Day of the Dumpster". 300px-Black_Ranger_with_Dragonshield.jpg|Zack with the Dragon armor. Category:Rangers Category:Mighty Morphin Power Rangers